Vaporizing and aerosol devices are used to dispense medications (e.g., nicotine, marijuana, opiates) or recreational substances (e.g., tobacco derivatives) to individual users. Vaporizing devices have also been used to extract essential oils from herbs or other plants, such as for cooking, or for Aromatherapy. Such devices often come in the form of a pen-like shape that is easy to store in a pocket or carrying bag. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. App. Serial No. US 2013/0152922, incorporated herein by reference. Another such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,794,231, and 8,733,345 incorporated herein by reference.
Such pens can be used to dispense a formulation that includes concentrates (the drug, essential oil, or other ingredients to be dispensed) that are dissolved in a base solution such as propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin that acts as a hygroscopic (water-attracting) component to transform the solution into a vapor when heated. The device is provided with an atomizer with a heating element for vaporizing the solution. In some embodiments, the atomizer can be integrated into a metal cartridge or plastic/glass tank as a single unit, to form a cartomizer.
There are at least two heating methods that are used for vaporizing. A convection heating method can be used, in which case the solution never touches the heating element, but is instead, it's added to a polyfill medium, and then air heated by the heating element releases the active ingredients. Such convection systems incorporate a cartridge rather than a tank.
In contrast, conduction heating can be used. For this approach, the substance to be vaporized is placed on a metal element that is then heated to release the active ingredients. This approach can use a wick (e.g., silica) and a metal filament or coil (made of nickel, aluminum or steel), that may be encased in a small bowl (typically ceramic) and positioned in the center of a chamber or tank. The wick tank may be accessed by prying off a small plastic lid, which is used to contain the glycerin solution. For use with solid concentrates (such as wax, budder, etc.), the plastic lid could remain off.
Either approach may utilize the same base unit (e.g., powered by a lithium ion battery).
However, under current pen designs, when a user wants to change from one formulation (solution) to another, such as to go from a daytime formula to a nighttime formula, the user must either carry more than one pen, potentially leading to confusion as to which pen has which formula, or alternatively the user must swap out the cartridge, or empty and refill the tank, to utilize the second formula, which is inconvenient. Such approaches are not ideal.